The two young Grey Herons in the nest at the west end of the island are growing daily, and are now easier to see.
Starlings waited on the tables at the Lido restaurant for a chance to grab a scrap.
Long-Tailed Tits flew down the edge of the Long Water in their endless quest for insects. This is one of the young ones, now independent but the family sticks together.
On the other side of the path a Carrion Crow posed on a felled tree trunk.
A picture by Mark Williams shows two behaving oddly. Not sure what was going on.
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The female Little Owl near the Round Pond looked down from a branch.
A good picture by Nick Abalov of the male on the dead tree where their nest hole is.
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One of the three owlets was in a nearby tree.
No sight of an owl at the Serpentine Gallery. There are other trees they use apart from the sweet chestnut where they nested, but they weren't calling so I couldn't find them.
The Coot chicks from the nest at the bridge are now quite large.
The Moorhens' nest in the stream in the Dell is a going concern.
Greylag and Canada geese hurried down to the lake. The reason: one perfectly well behaved dog on a lead. But the moulting geese are flightless now, and have to be extra careful.
The Bar-Head x Greylag Goose hybrid was safely near the water's edge, and continued to doze peacefully.
Every year a pair of Egyptian Geese bring up their family in the fountain in the middle of the busy Marble Arch roundabout. The gardeners and maintenance men ensure that there are always planks so that they can get out to graze.
While I was at Marble Arch I took the opportunity of photographing the smallest house in London. Its black front door is in the middle of the picture, and the house has one long room on each floor, fitting between the walls of the adjacent houses. The original 19th century front was refaced when the building to the right was constructed in the 1980s.
A Brimstone butterfly drank nectar from a bramble flower.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee and two Honeybees clustered on a Lamb's Ears flower in the Rose Garden.
Tom was at Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk, where he got a picture of a Chinese Water Deer. There is now a small feral population.
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I recently saw a Muntjac from a Metropolitan line train , near Chorleywood or Chalfont , standing right beside the track. Astonishing. Heard of them before, but never seen one.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've heard that they are getting quite widespread on the fringes of London.
Delete(or is that different from Chinese Water Deer? It was one of those above, anyway)
ReplyDeleteYes, they're different species.
DeleteAre those fangs?! What does it eat?
ReplyDeleteHow many square meters does that house have? It looks tiny!
What a dramatic moment between the Crows. One seems to be telling hte other off.
Tinúviel
Yes, it has tusks, for territorial fights. They can be folded back for eating -- very strange anatomy. No antlers, but technically it is a deer.
DeleteEach floor is 32 ft long and 4 ft wide, so the area of each room is 128 sq ft (just under 12 m²). The rooms are connected by a ladder.